


toss a coin to your witcher

by WelcomeToTheBadlands



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Ben Solo, Crush at First Sight, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Grumpy Ben Solo, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kylo Ren is Grumpy, Not really a witcher au but has some similar names and creatures, Swords, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22064776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelcomeToTheBadlands/pseuds/WelcomeToTheBadlands
Summary: It’s a cold and silent night across the whole of Coruscant, but it was not a restful one. There was something stirring in the night, waiting to be let free from the cage that it was trapped in. It’s almost as if everyone was waiting, with dread in their hearts, anticipating something awful to happen. The very next day, a Witcher arrived in town. His hair darker than that of raven feathers and his eyes as golden as the sun itself. Some people had already been anticipating his venture into town, others were surprised when they saw him. Acted like it was a token a death to lay eyes upon him. “Didn’t you hear the witch’s prophecy? She was correct.” Some whispered.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 24
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I just want to reiterate this isn't a witcher specific au, you don't have to know anything about the Witcher to read this au, and in fact if you're expecting Witcher elements other than the fact that monster hunters are called Witchers, this ain't it. Kay thanks! Enjoy.

It’s a cold and silent night across the whole of Coruscant, but it was not a restful one. There was something stirring in the night, waiting to be let free from the cage that it was trapped in. It’s almost as if everyone was waiting, with dread in their hearts, anticipating something awful to happen. The very next day, a Witcher arrived in town. His hair darker than that of raven feathers and his eyes as golden as the sun itself. Some people had already been anticipating his venture into town, others were surprised when they saw him. Acted like it was a token a death to lay eyes upon him. “Didn’t you hear the Witch’s prophecy? She was correct.” Some whispered. The Witcher seemed to make no notice of what people said.

He wasn’t hear for rumors and trivia. He was here to make a living, like most people in the Kingdom of Coruscant were. Of course, the people who heard the Witch’s prophecy knew that already. The people that heard the Witch’s prophecy were the same people who knew what the monster hunter was looking for the second that he stepped into the Crowned Sun tavern. Not many people were opportunists though, not many people actually had the where with all to try and approach the Witcher with a proposition.

Not many people were Rose Tico though. The barkeeper was one of the Witch’s personal friends, somebody that she would trust her life, and if what she said about the Witcher that stood in her tavern was true, there was nothing to fear from him. Through a crowd of drunk men giving him eyes or humming along to the bardsong drifting across the tavern, Rose pushed people out of the way so that she could approach him. She didn’t bother with the pleasantries, she merely said, “Ser Kylo Ren of the Order?”

“Aye,”

“You’re looking for a job,” He nodded. The Witcher was not a man of many words. Just like the Witch had said that he would be. He nodded once more. “You kill monsters?”

“Aye,”

“There’s an alghoul that’s been killing poor widows near the swamp next to the Corellian cemeteries. It killed some of my friend’s family. Others. If you kill it and deliver it to Zorri of Kijimi, then you could earn enough coin for two nights here and unlimited ale.” He nodded.

“Is there anything else that I should know?”

“No, ser.” He nodded, and then left without a word. People whisper about how they thought that he would be grander, or more self-righteous. It seems that neither is true of this particular Witcher, he is truly here to make a profit. Some say that the alghoul is like none they have ever seen before. Deader than should be possible, even for a creature of such nature. Some say that it will kill the man that went after it, tear him in two and eat his beating heart.

It doesn’t though. He is the one that kills it and brings back to the parts to Zorri of Kijimi. He doesn’t ask where the parts go. They just disappear. He’s given the coin that he is promised and spends it on what Rose had suggest. Room and board and ale. Some wager against the Witcher, arm wrestle, spar, anything for more coin.

He is not one for games, many learn. He’s a man of a still disposition that goes from day to day in a robotic fashion. Some people thought him odd. Others thought him dangerous. It didn’t matter. It turned out that with a Witcher there, people found out that more of their missing children and crops and cattle were missing because of monsters, and the Witcher brought them all to justice while he was in town. Usually with minimal damage.

And then something happened. No one could really make out the reason for the bloody fight between the Witcher and the _thing_ that he was fighting. Its grotesque body was long and grey and slimy, looking much like a leech with limbs, but then it sang and for a brief moment, people would see the appearance of the once that they desired most in life.

Of course, this singing didn’t work on him. It only seemed to irritate him more than anything, and the monster lashed out accordingly.

The Witcher did succeed, but only after sending the dead creature flying into the window of a very expensive looking manor. “Fuck,” That was the first time that many had hear him curse.

__

It took Ren most of the day to find out how to get into Rey’s home. There was an enchantment on the gate that kept it from opening without the approved permission from somebody else. He had found the General after paying a young girl more coin than he should have, and going to another tower that supposed belonged to the Witch. “You broke one of her windows?” The General had had a laugh about that. “Those things are more expensive than anything you’d have on you.”

“Still, I would like to pay the Witch back for the damage I have caused. I need someone with approval to get in.”

“Ah, so that’s why you need me. If you’re actually going to try and assassinate her, let me tell you she’s not like other mages. She doesn’t hurt people. She’s never even killed a living soul in her life. So are you here because your intentions are true?”

“Aye,”

“Then I will help, but I would like to warn you. The Witch—she’s a lot.”

“Really?”

“Yes, like really bubbly. Someone as grumpy looking as you would be annoyed.”

“Good to know,”

__

_It was the witching hour when Ben Solo was taken from his home. He was three years old and he didn’t remember much of his family at all. All he remembered was that his home was warm, and his mother would sing to him at night, but that was it. Now he’s twenty-eight and he no longer goes by that name._

__

Rey had to admit that when she had a prophetic dream about meeting a Witcher and meeting him in an explosive way, she didn’t think it would be because he broke her window. Luckily she had been out, tending to her garden when she heard the crash from the outside, because if she had been inside she was pretty sure that she would have been killed by the corpse of the vampire that the Witcher was hunting.

She wasn’t expecting the apology for the window that she got the very next day, she really wasn’t. She fixed it using magic and got rid of the slimy corpse that went through her window in the matter of half an hour and was going to forget about it, but the next day two people knocked on her door. She opened the door to see General Hux, the man that was assigned to guard her tower and often delivered her summons that she would ignore from royal families. Next to the General was a man that Rey could only assume was the Witcher, in the flesh. She didn’t get a very good look at him when Hux marched in like he meant business.

Rey giggled to herself, mainly because she couldn’t take Hux seriously. “This man wanted permission to enter your home so that he could apologize for breaking your window.” Rey glanced back at the man, now getting to drink him in for the first time. He was tall, with the same dark hair that she saw in her dreams and the same grumpy disposition.

She did not however, remember his eyes being gold. Sometimes prophetic dreams couldn’t get the details quite right on that front, though. “Well,” She said as he stepped inside. “Go ahead.” She couldn’t stop herself from staring at his eyes. She thought that maybe she could get lost in them if she really wanted.

“I wanted to apologize for breaking your window and sending that thing through it, if it’s still here I can retrieve it for you.”

“I dealt with it,”

“and I will pay to replace your window,”

“Mm,” Rey turned, moving to her kitchen. “That won’t be necessary.” She called out to him. “Although I appreciate the gesture, I’ve already fixed it.” She could practically feel the discomfort rolling off this man from the other room. Rey smirked, returning with a bowl of raspberries.

“Was harvesting these from the garden yesterday. Want some?” She could see the General roll his eyes. The Witcher gave her a look that said he had no idea what to make of her, which was fair, considering that most people didn’t know what to make of her. “Don’t worry, they’re not poisoned or enchanted.” She said. She popped one in her mouth and chewed with dramatic effect.

He took one, ate it, and with no changing in his expression said, “Thank you that was one of the best fruits I’ve ever tasted.” Rey grinned, now more amused than she had been before.

“Thank you,” She said, “I take pride in my garden, so it would be a shame not to share it. Anyway, thank you for coming to apologize about my window, not many would do that.”

“Just out of curiosity,” She asked, “What is your name?”

If she was being honest, there were a lot of things she was curious about with this man.

“Madame, this Ser Kylo Ren of—”

“No,” Rey took the bowl back and waved her hand, the bowl disappeared. She could see Hux wonder where the bowl had just gone. “That’s not your name. Your real name. You’re not going to tell me it?” This was the first time that she had seen any flickering of emotion across his face. Interesting. She had strucked a cord. “Fine. I’m guessing you’re a Ben or something like that. Anyway, thank you for apologizing. You can go now. Bye.”

He gave her a look and she waved as he and Hux turned around and walked out the door.

__

The door shut behind Kylo and Hux, and the first thing that he thought was that the General was not exaggerating about just how bubbly she had been. He wasn’t sure if he found that annoying or just odd. Especially in a place so gloomy and depressing. Especially when the witches that powerful were rumoured to live hundreds and hundreds of years. “What the hell was that?” Kylo grunted.

“That was the Witch of the Valley,” The General said. “I told you that she—"

“Is she always so—”

“Annoying?”

“Energetic,” The two of them said in unison.

“Oh, well she’s that too. Yes. She’s always like that.”

“Interesting.”


	2. those who know your name

The Witch had lived in Coruscant for longer than most of the people in it had been alive. It had fallen and rose tons and tons of times, been overrun with monsters, had felt peace. No one had ever been around long enough to know much more than her name. Rey. The Witch of the Valley. Most witches would go down in history as eating children or being vengeful, but not Rey. Rey grew a garden that was always replenishing itself, and she always made sure the poorest children in Coruscant had enough to eat.

People knew that the Witch of the Valley was kind, but not much more than that. Any stories that would have been told about her through word of mouth had evidently had not carried across time. Of course, the deeds of good people often go untold. Even if certain people, like the bar tender Rose Tico found that to be an injustice.

The Witch of the Valley did not do anything because she wanted to be recognized or famous. She did not strive for power.

She strived to make other people happy. Some people said it was because her heart bled too heavily, and that it was too big. Some people said that she was too naïve and sheltered. The only reason that she was kind to people was because she didn’t know what people were really like. Others would say that no witch was kind. That she must have some sort of ulterior motive.

People speculated a lot.

Still, no one bothered to get to know the Witch of the Valley so they could make a more accurate judgement.

\--

It had been days since Kylo met the Witch and she was still on his mind, the image of her dressed in dark green silks with her hair pulled back in three strange buns. She had known his real name. Spoken it without even thinking. Most witches he had known had never done a thing like that.

Ren didn’t know what to do. He never thought about people like this and he certainly wasn’t going to start now. Maybe she enchanted him. Yes, maybe that was it.

Kylo found himself back at her place this time finding that he could open the gate with ease. He didn’t know why, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. He shut the gate and left without confronting her.

__

The Witcher killed three more monsters before Rey saw him again. She knew that he was going to need her before he went out of town again. He was walking up the steps to her house when Rey opened the door. “Ah, Witcher. Nice to see you again.”

“You knew I was coming,”

“Bonus of having visions.” She shrugged.

“Great,”

“So, what can I do for you today?”

“I’m leaving town,” He told her, “Was told that you also sold preserves,”

“Ah, yeah.” She motioned for him to come in. “Go ahead, sit. I’ll pack you a basket.” She wondered if this man always looked so grumpy. She would have to ask him later.

“Are you always so hospitable to your clients?” He sat down as Rey made her way to her kitchen and started to pack him a basket. She made sure to pack it in such a way that wasn’t obnoxious when being held.

“I guess, if being decent is hospitable.” There was one last touch. Something the Witcher probably would not accept if she offered it to him. A healing potion. “There.” She packed the basket and secured it with a leather strap. Heading back to the living room, she tried her best not to stare and set it in his lap.

“How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing,”

“And why is that?” He got up.

Rey shrugged, “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Is there some ulterior motive of yours that I should know about?”

“No,” Rey said simply, “I don’t charge first time customers. Simple. Have a safe trip, Witcher.”

__

He did not end up asking Rey any of the questions that he had intended on asking her. But there was one thing that he was pretty certain of when he left her house. Rey had not enchanted him in any way, whatsoever. He just wasn’t used to people being nice. A kind heart just wasn’t practical in a world like this. Still that didn’t mean that he wasn’t grateful for the things that she had given him. He very much was.

Kylo Ren wasn’t good at emotions. He had never been good at them, not since he was a boy, and the program he went to didn’t exactly encourage them either. Kylo needed to stop this line of thinking. He stopped into the first tavern for a mug of ale before he got back out on his way with his horse.

This was going to be a long new trip. There was far to go and nothing to look at between kingdoms. Something Ren was used to but still didn’t like. Most of the sights he had to see were blank fields of tall grass that stretched on for as long as the eye could see. It always took weeks to travel. This time, everything seemed to stretch on forever and ever.

__

_“Witchers only care about two things,” The voice of an old man boomed across the stretch of the building. The sun was starting to set and the natural light was now making the shadows loom and seem much bigger and more threatening than they had been before. “Monsters and money, so tell me boy, why are you crying?”_

_“I’m not crying,” Ben Solo is a shadow of a human at this point. All the pain in his heart was now something else._

_“Are you sure, boy?” He nodded. “Then we shall keep on with your training.” He was the only boy to continue his training._

_The rest of them were dead._

__

It was nearly a month since Kylo Ren had been traveling through the dark forest. It was thick with brambles and weeds and the sunlight didn’t penetrate through the thick roof of the forest trees. He had traversed through this wood many times, mostly without food, so while the journey was longer than he thought it would be he would mindlessly take something out of the basket, find fresh fruit and wonder how it hadn’t gone rotten yet, think that he would ask the witch later, and that he would thank her later.

It wasn’t every day that he had the pleasure of eating something fresh that wasn’t a freshly killed rabbit.

It was two months before Kylo Ren had more jobs to do. Most of them going off without a hitch of any kind. He could forget about the witch that he met and do the only thing that he was good at. Killing. Monsters, humans that acted like monsters.

Whatever gave him the most money at the time.

Kylo Ren ended up in the land of Kijimi. It was dark and cold and a place that he immediately decided that he didn’t like, but it was where the money led him to. Kijimi had an infestation problem. Too many ghouls, cursed pets and djins to count. This was going to take a long time to finish this job. The coin was worth it though.

After a very long day, he ended up in the Resistance tavern again. Why did it seem to be that there were bards everywhere? It seemed that every tavern that Ren frequented, there was a bard being annoying. It was much the same in this one, except his singing wasn’t as annoying as in the last one that he was in.

Still, there was something left to be desired in the tales that he told. Apparently, Kylo wasn’t the only one who felt this sentiment. Some far stronger than others, because some drunk tavern goer threw a piece of bread at the poor bard’s head. “Yeah, yeah. Okay. I get it.” The bard stopped singing and put his guitar down.

It was just Ren’s luck that he started heading his way. He sat opposite of him at the table and sighed in a dramatic fashion. “Rough day,” He said, “and who are you?” Kylo just downed more of his ale and hoped that his silence would prevent him from further conversation. “Ah, strong and silent type with golden eyes. The ladies must love you, don’t they? Anyway, I’m Poe. Poe Dameron,”

“I don’t care,”

“Cool. Cool. Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.” He really didn’t get the hint at all. Then he got a look at the man’s sword and swallowed. “Holy shit, you’re a Witcher. Dark hair, golden eyes, let me guess. You’re Kylo Ren.” Kylo rolled his eyes, he was hoping the revelation that he was a Witcher would send the bard running. But that was quite the opposite of what happened. Kylo stayed his night at the tavern and Poe Dameron was there in the morning when he woke up. “Oh, Witcher. So nice for you to finally grace us with your presence this morning.”

All of the sudden, he wanted to go back to sleep. “What do you want, bard?”

“Well,” He said, “I was thinking that perhaps I could go along with you on your journeys for the next few days?”

“No,”

“Oh, come on.” He said. “I may be a bard, but I am good with a crossbow,” He told him, “besides I need a muse for my songs. You heard me the other day, you know it’s the truth. Please? You would be the perfect writing inspiration and I wouldn’t get in your way.” Kylo glanced back at him.

“You’re good with a crossbow,”

“Yes,”

“Then I suppose you can come. One day. Don’t talk to me at all, if you do, I’ll punch you in your balls.”

__

It seemed that the bard proved useful. That was something that Kylo wasn’t expecting. He never landed a killing blow on a monster, but he did wound them a few times, especially when there was more than one and Kylo couldn’t kill more than one thing at once.

He was still annoying though, droning on for hours and hours. Kylo made good on his promise once and that seemed to shut him up for about thirty minutes, and then he kept talking and talking. It was practically torture. Ren was glad to be rid of him at the end of the day.

He got some sleep and then went on his way again, there were still an infestation of djins, and overly large poisonous scorpions. When Poe asked if he could come again today, Ren told him what he was planning to kill and all of the sudden the bard wasn’t there to annoy him anymore. He thanked the heavens for the peace and silence that he got.

Usually the killing was the same and uneventful. There wasn’t much heroism in monster hunting, unless you were an outside with a more boring life than one could hope for. There wasn’t much adventure in it either, or thrill. Okay, maybe Ren had been killing monsters for so long that there wasn’t much thrill in it.

Things were predictable.

Until today.

There was something that he could feel was wrong, as soon as he started out on his day. The scorpion was at the edge of town, attacking farmers and animals. The air felt off, like there was so much smoke in the air that could just choke you and drain the life from you, but there was nothing around that could do something like that. The only thing that it could be was magic, and Kylo soon found out that that was what it was.

Everyone in town seemed off. Not exactly afraid but more lifeless. Like they had no idea that there was a creature that was feeding off their town, or they did, and they just didn’t care about it. Luckily, the magic did not affect Kylo Ren, just made it feel a little bit harder to breathe. The smoke made it harder to locate the beast, though. Took longer this time, and his horse seemed uneasy about it the entire time.

The scorpion was bigger than he thought it would be, instead of the usual size of a horse, this was instead the size of a small hovel. There was no way that he should have been able to take a monster like this, but he had taken giants before and he would not be intimidated by something that was only bigger in size than it was supposed to be. What threw him for a loop was when angry farmers appeared on either side of him.

It took him a minute to figure out what was going on.

The beast was enchanting them, as protection. “Fuck,” The fight was a short one though. Even when enchanted, none of them had the training that Kylo Ren had, and when the last farmer fell to the ground. The scorpion started to emit this high pitched scream that reverberated through the field that the two of them were fighting in.

Then, it charged.

__

There was something about the Witcher that Rey couldn’t put her finger on. She just knew that there was something about the two of them that intertwined them. Destiny, maybe? She couldn’t be too sure. All she knew was that she kept having dreams of him. Glimpses of his past. Glimpses of his possible future.

__

The fight was four hours long and it was hard, but the monster was vanquished. At a price, though. Kylo had been stung by the scorpion, and the lethal poison would take hold in five minutes. For a second, he panicked. Okay, for two minutes of the five minutes he had before the poison took hold and made him completely delirious, he panicked. He didn’t know how he got back to his horse, but he did somehow, his leg hurting like hell.

He was battered and bruised and could taste blood in his mouth. For some reason, he went to the basket that he had been using for food and actually looked in it.

There he saw a bottle. Neatly labelled, healing potion.

_Holy shit._

_Thank goodness for Rey._ He wasn’t going to die.


	3. Caring is Weird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry for such a short chapter! It's going to result in a longer chapter four, I promise

Kylo had gone back to Rey’s, even though the journey was long and difficult, he ended up back on her doorstep, not really sure what to do or what to say. He did end up knocking on the door. The basket in his hands, ready to get back to her. Rey opened the door almost immediately. “Oh, hello.” She said. “Fancy seeing you here.” Before he could say anything, Rey motioned for Ben to come in.

“I just came to return this,” He told her. “And to say thank you, for the healing potion that you snuck into my basket.” The witch smiled and took the basket from him.

“Something told me that you wouldn’t that kind of help from me if I had asked you if you wanted it. So, I just put it in there. Glad to see that you’re You know I found a spell that I was looking for actually, to keep the basket refilling.” Rey told him. “If you stay here, I can get more ready for you to help you on your journey.”

  
He stayed. There was something about this place that felt comfortable. Maybe because it felt like an actual home instead of a tavern. “So how are things since I’ve been away?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Rey said, “these days I mainly keep to myself. I go out every once and a while to give food to the poorest children but I’ve learned to ignore the chit-chat of the people.” There’s something strained about Rey’s voice, and there’s something different about her. He’s not sure what it is, but the departure from the happy nature that she normally had faltered for just a second and all the sudden her walls were back up. “Perhaps you can go and find out for yourself,” She started packing his basket and this time Ben watched her. That’s when Rey looked back at his armor.

“You’re going to need a new set soon,” She said, gesturing to the armor.

“I usually just get it repaired.”

“Well it’s leather so there’s only so much that you can do with that.”

“Do you know an armorer around here that makes trustworthy and cheap product?”

“Cheap and trustworthy are two different things,” She smirked, “but if you want I can pa—”

“No,” He told her, “you’ve already done enough for me.”

“Do you want me to mend it for you?” She said, “With magic? You can use my bath while you wait and then I will charge you,” He set his jaw, considering it.

“Only if you allow me to pay you,”

“Fine. You can pay me. Now, leave the armor to me, and then go down the hallway and it’s the second door to the left.” He nodded, wondering why she was being so nice to him. The bath in Rey’s house was huge, almost as big as a royal one. It reminded Ren that Rey was in fact a Witch. The room was a lot bigger than it should be, complete with house plants and soft orbs of light illuminating the room in a golden haze of light. The bath was already made and ready, and Ren once again knew that Rey knew that he was coming.

Kylo looked around, a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit tense, but he stripped of the rest of his layers and undergarments and sank into the bath. It was the perfect temperature, warm to ease his body from the pain and tenseness that he always suffered from, to ease him and warm him up from the outside which was arguably cooler.

It was a little too comforting.

By too comforting, Kylo met comforting at all, he didn’t have such luxuries so readily available to him. He wasn’t sure what to do with them now.

__

Rey had taken the liberty of producing a nicer under shirt for Ben—Kylo as well as mend and bless his armor. He didn’t need to know that she had packed a few softer shirts in the now enchanted basket. It was almost bottomless without giving off any extra weight. She carefully labelled three more potions, a bottle of poison for dipping arrows in, and a sleeping drought. It was a while before Kylo came out of the back, his hair just slightly damp.

For a second, Rey got lost in those bright gold eyes of his.

God, he was beautiful. It wasn’t fair just how beautiful he was, either. It was like all the most successful sculptors and painters in the world had teamed up with the gods to make the man that was standing in front of her right now. Rey licks her lips. “Was the bath to your liking?”

“Oh, very much so.” He said. “Thank you, for that. Is that—”

“Your armor,”

“It looks new,”

“Blessings of magic,” He gives her this look and Rey can’t tell if it’s his look of approval or his _I’m very impressed_ look, all he knows is that she feels very hot all of the sudden as she stares at him. “It’s the least I could do,”

“The least you could do?” Kylo practically scoffs, “You gave me food for free and a potion that saved me life, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you really don’t owe me anything.” He really isn’t used to people being kind, is he? To be fair, Rey wasn’t either. She hadn’t experienced kindness from anyone other than Rose and hungry kids in the past hundred years. “I owe you, how much?”

“Twenty,”

“Twenty. This is all worth more than twenty.”

“It’s all I charge, I don’t need money, Witcher.”

“Then, what do you want?”

“I have everything that I could ever want, Ren. So I don’t know exactly have an answer for what you’re asking of me.” That was a lie. There were things that Rey wanted, but she would never ask of them. She could tell that this was a problem for Kylo.

“There must be a job, or something that you want me to do.”

“Fine,” She said. “There is one job that you can do for me.”

“And what’s that,” She smoothed out her palms on the dark green skirt of her dress.

“I know you usually only kill monsters and not men. But this man—is a monster…. Anyway…There is a man in town,” She said, “a slaver and a child rapist. His name is Unkar Plutt. I’m not saying that I condone murder, but if he were to disappear that would be very good for the children in this town. Cause less heartbreak.”

“The job will be done by nightfall,”

He left with that, and he was right. Unkar Plutt was dead before the sun fell that day.

__

It would be another four months before Rey and Kylo Ren saw each other again. He found that as the days got colder, he would reach into the basket Rey had gotten him and find a soft and warm undershirt or a blanket, or whatever he needed. He kept wondering why the Witch had done something so nice for him. It wasn’t until two months into his journey that he found a tavern that he could actually stay in for more than one night. His horse was safe in it’s stall.

It seemed he could never have a peaceful time just drinking by himself. He would love to just have a drink of ale in the tavern without being interrupted. Unfortunately, he was not given enough time to have a drink in peace.

He found someone that he had met before was in the tavern too, he could tell by the singing. ‘ _Fuck’_ he thought to himself as he watched Poe Dameron walk around the corner. He had this smirk on his face that was utterly obnoxious. At least he stopped singing. “Witcher!” Dameron sat down. “What a pleasure,” He said, “I need your help.”


	4. toss a coin to your witcher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't watched the Witcher, this song is a bop. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS4Q-WWyl3Q - The metal cover of the song
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqbS7O9qIXE - The in show song

“I need your help,” Poe said. Kylo raised an eyebrow. He really didn’t want to deal with this man. He would, though.

“Would do you want?” He grumbled.

“Mm, a lot of things. Mainly right now, protection.”

“Protection? Who did you piss off?”

“What makes you think that I pissed someone off, maybe I just need protection?”

“You’re you.” Kylo shrugged. “Of course you need protection because you pissed someone off.” Poe opened his mouth and then closed it. Kylo was right after all. Kylo smirked and then went back to drinking his ale. “So what is it? Slept with the wrong girl? Sang a song too loud in a bar?”

“Not exactly—but these elves heard that I was your friend—”

“Why would they think that I’m your friend?” Kylo asked with a hint of disgust in his voice.

“Listen—that doesn’t matter. Anyway—they’re trying to kill me and you know how elves are. They’re scary.”

“Hmm.”

“So, will you help me?”

“For how much,”

“I don’t have any money,”

“Well then I’m afraid I’m not taking your job.” Another swig of his ale. He hoped that Poe would leave. However, he did not.

Poe looked absolutely terrified that Kylo didn’t take his job. “Witcher, please. You don’t understand the situation—”

“No coin, no Witcher.” He stood up. “That’s just how the world works.” Kylo couldn’t wait to leave, but it seemed like today was going to go in Poe Dameron’s favor. A disoriented and bloodied man stumbled into the tavern. Some overly dramatic woman screamed, someone else fainted. Kylo turned around to see the man was coming his way.

“Witcher,” The man said, “imagine my luck when I heard you were in town.”

“What happened?” Kylo asked gruffly.

“There was—this big horned creature—in the valley. I—I—he attacked my son and I as we were carting our wares. I tried to help him, I really did. But he’s dead and—”

“Sit. Try and calm down.” Kylo said.

“Please, I need your help. Please—” He rummaged through his pocket and sat a large purse full of coins down on the table.

“Done,” Kylo picked the coins up.

“The deed will be taken care of,” With that, he started to leave the tavern. Of course, Dameron was trying to catch up with him, lute in hand. “Oh, no. You’re not coming with me.”

“But—”

“No buts,”

“I know you don’t mean that, I was pretty useful the last time that we were together.” There was no point to trying to get rid of him. Ben knew that. Plus, there was less likelihood of him actually getting in trouble. Ben motioned for him to follow as he got his horse from the stable and they started walking down the townsroad.

__

It had been two hours and Kylo wished he wasn’t babysitting Poe Dameron. He hadn’t lost his knack for being as annoying as humanly possible. He was singing a number of god awful songs, and Kylo was on the verge of getting a migraine. “You’re going to get the both of us killed, Dameron.” Kylo sighed, heavily. He just wanted to enjoy nature and deal with the problem. The path to the valley was filled with flowers and beautiful trees that towered above the both of them with red leaves that shifted to yellow and orange. It looked a lot like fire.

He might’ve actually enjoyed it if the bard wasn’t there.

“So, a man with horns. Do you think it’s the Devil?”

“That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said. The Devil doesn’t exist.”

“What makes you so sure about that?”

“Because I am.”

“You know for a monster hunter, you really don’t have that much faith in which monsters are real and which monsters aren’t.”

“Let’s put it this way,” Kylo’s horse trotted along right next to him, merrily ignoring Poe. “If it was the Devil, that man would have been dead as well.”

“True, sound logic.”

__

The valley was like a scorch mark to the land around it. None of the grass grew in the entrance to the valley, there was just pure onyx colored black rock. He already felt like something was wrong. He could smell the sharp iron smell of blood and knew that something bad was about to happen. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the fae ring. “Stick close,” Kylo grumbled at Poe.

The Bard did not have to be told that twice.

Kylo licked his lips before looking around the valley. He could feel his heart rate pick up. Once he passed the entrance of the valley, his grip tightened on his sword. He was glad that he had let his horse roam a little way away from here.

It was a little too quiet. “Huh, this might not be as bad as I thought it would be.” Poe spoke a little too soon, as he was shot by something almost as soon as he said that. He passed out, and Kylo whipped around violently. Looking for the source of the thing that shot him. He found it.

A being with horns and a face like a goat but the body and the voice of a man. With one hand, he grabbed him by one of his horns and yanked, about to kill the being when he shouted, “Wait, wait. Don’t kill me.”

It could talk. Kylo paused. “Don’t kill me,” It repeated.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t?” He asked the creature. The creature was practically screeching at the top of it’s lungs, terrified of the Witcher that could end it’s life at any moment.

“I was scared. I was scared and this place—it belonged to my ancestors. Humans aren’t supposed to pass through here.”

“Your ancestors.”

“I’m a satyr,”

It didn’t take much to put that together. Kylo sheathed his sword, letting the satyr down. “Is that pellet you shot at that man going to hurt him in any way?”

“Your friend is going to be fine,”

“Aye, fine. I’ll leave you alone. But you need to sto—” Before he could say anything else, a sharp pain registered on the back of his head. He was rendered unconscious.

__

_It is under the light of the blood moon that Ben Solo is reborn into Kylo Ren. Snoke tells him that he is destined for great things, that he just needs to do a few more things to make sure that he is ready for the change. Give away his heart, his soul. Sign them away to him. Ben does, because what other choice does he have? Refusal meant death as a punishment, and Ben had survived so far._

_He didn’t know that the change was going to be so painful. Like his whole body was burning or he was being eaten alive by dozens of tiny ants. When the change is done, Ben Solo is dead._

_Kylo Ren lives without feeling and without remorse for anything that he does. Until the day that he met her._

__

When Kylo Ren wakes, Poe is already chattering away, pleading for their captors not to kill them. Which is slightly bemusing until someone sticks a knife at Kylo’s throat and he realizes that he is way too tired to deal with any of this right now.

The one who was about to slit his throat was a young elven woman with blonde hair, “What the hell were you doing in our valley?” He really didn’t want to deal with this. Not right now.

“I think you should put that down. You’re being a tad dramatic,” These were obvious the elves that Poe had been afraid of. Probably also the people that had nearly killed that poor man.

“Do you really think that you’re in the position to be making demands? You’re the one that’s tied up.”

“Do you really think that some rope and chain is going to stop me from being able to fight you?” Kylo said with a disinterested tone in his voice.

“Hey, Ren?” Poe hissed, “Maybe it’s in our best interested to not piss off the crazy lady?”

“Shut up, Dameron.”

“If you really want to kill anyone, you can kill me. Just let the Bard go. He’s annoying but harmless.”

“Hey!”

“Hmm,” The elven woman cocked her head to the side, “maybe I’ll just kill you both and keep the rest of your things.”

“See, that is the one thing that you’re not going to do. The Bard was unarmed, killing him would be wrong.”

“Do I look like I care?”

“You should,” Kylo said with a dark tone.

“I’ve always wanted to get my hands on a pair of humans to kill, you’re not going to take that away from me, Witcher.”

“Technically, you’re not getting a pair.” Poe said. Sometimes, Kylo wished that Poe would shut up. “Ren’s a mutant. Ever seen a human with eyes like his?” It was true, Kylo was not entirely human. At least, not any more.

“Plus, I won’t ever tell people about the fact that you’re here, so I think that you should let us go.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” Kylo shrugged, “I wouldn’t either.”

“Whose side are you on?”

“But, like I said he is nothing more than—”

He got punched in the stomach. Kylo responded with butting the elf in the head and sending her backwards, about to get up to attack again when a male elf shouted, “Enough!” He sits back down, and Poe babbles about how it was a valiant effort. “You say that you’re not entirely human, so that gives you some leniency. That does not give us any reason to not kill the Bard. He is annoying as you say.”

Kylo was taking a little too long to find a reason not to kill him. He really wasn’t great at deescalating situations like this. “Well,”

“Well?”

“You’re really not helping, Ren!”

“You shouldn’t kill him because he’s never killed anyone, especially anyone of your kind.” It was somewhat of a lie but in this situation, he was pretty sure that Poe didn’t care about that sort of thing. “And, if you do kill more people than you already have, more humans will come for you. I won’t kill you here today, but people that are less forgiving than me would. Especially if you so cold heartedly killed someone like the Bard.”

It was just then that satyr that had been missing for so long finally showed up. “I would like to vouch for the both of them,” The two elves turned to face the satyr. “The Witcher, he could have killed me when I attacked his friend and he didn’t. There’s something different about them.” This commenced with a session of whispering that lasted for way too long, but ended up with Kylo and Poe being freed and their stuff returned to them, under the promise that the elves and satyr would leave and not bother any more humans.

They left right before the Witcher and Poe did.

“Wow, that was amazing.” Poe was strumming on his lute, “Loved that reverse psychology you did on them. You know that real stoic _kill me_ that you did. That was neat, buddy. Although you could really learn to wake up sooner when you get knocked out, you scared the shit out of me.” Kylo rolled his eyes, focusing on the trees, on his horse.

That was when the bard started to formulate a song.

_“When a humble bard / graced to ride along / with Kylo of the Order / along came this song…”_

“Oh god,” He really did not need an epic about him. He wasn’t a hero, didn’t want one.

Poe gave him this shit eating grin, _“From when the Black Wolf fought / A silver-tongued devil /His army of elves / At his hooves did they revel…”_

“There was no army of elves,”

“I know,” He was still strumming his lute, “but the truth never sells, now. Does it?”

“ _They came after me / With masterful deceit / Broke down my lute / And they kicked in my teeth!”_

Poe started to walk away, but the song still wafted through the air and Kylo could still hear it as he watched the Bard part his way. _“While the devil’s horns / Minced our tender meat / And so cried the Witcher / He can’t be bleat.”_ No one would listen to this song anyway. Kylo was sure of it. There was no need to worry about if it was embellished quite a bit.

_“Toss a coin to your Witcher / O’ Valley of Plenty / O’ Valley of Plenty / O’ / Toss a coin to Your Witcher / O’ Valley of Plenty…”_ At least, he really hoped that no one would listen to this. Kylo Ren was not a hero, nor was any other Witcher. He didn’t want some kid getting the wrong idea and putting themselves in danger. Glorifying the ways of abuse that put him in the spot where he is now. “ _At the edge of the world / Fight the mighty horde / That bashes and breaks you / And brings you to mourn—”_ Poe turned around to face Kylo. “Oh, by the way thank you. I think this is going to be my best song yet.”

_“ He thrust every elf / Far back on the shelf / High up on the mountain / From whence it came / He wiped out your pest / Got kicked in his chest / He’s a friend of humanity / So give him the rest / That’s my epic tale / Our champion prevailed / Defeated the villain / Now pour him some ale…”_

He couldn’t wait until the Bard was gone. _“Toss a coin to your Witcher / O’ Valley of Plenty / O’ Valley of Plenty….”  
_

Kylo Ren needed a nap.

__

This time, Rey and Kylo did not meet again at her house, he was at the tavern again when he saw Rey enter. She hadn’t seen him at first, but when she did she smiled and came over almost immediately. “B—”

“Don’t call me that,” She rolled her eyes and then sat down.

“Fine. Ren. How lovely to see you here.”

“What are you doing here?” He asked. Rey rarely went out. Kylo knew that. There must be a reason.

“I do have to make money somehow, every once and a while I do consultations for the royals of the land. Was just blessing the young princess before her coronation.”

“Coronation?”

“Yeah, you didn’t know that?”

“I don’t keep up with politics. Don’t belong to this land anyway.”

“Ah, I guess I get that.” She said. “Anyway, what are you doing here? Do you have a place to stay?”

“All of the rooms in the Inn are taken, unfortunately. So I was going to sleep in the stables.” Rey immediately looked concerned. Again, Kylo didn’t know why.

“But it’s cold outside, you could get sick.”

“Isn’t the first time that I’ve done it.”

“Doesn’t mean that you have to do that, my house has a lot of rooms. You could sleep there until you’re on your way.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Why am I doing what?”

“Why are you being so nice?”

“Do I have to have a reason?”

“No, no. I’m not going to go to your house.” He could see that Rey looked disappointed, but she nodded as if she understood.

“Fine.” She said. “Well, I’m going to go home and if you do need me, you know where to find me.”

They bid each other goodbye and Kylo went back to his food, Kylo had wished that Rey stayed, but of course he wasn’t going to tell her that. Tell her that he did somewhat—mildly enjoy her company. Once the sun went down, he went to the stables to sleep right next to his horse. He lasted about twenty minutes in the cold and rough winds that whistled through the stable before realizing that he should have just asked Rey if he could stay at her house. It was about another twenty minutes before he accepted his defeat and made his way to Rey’s house.

There was still a light on inside her house when Kylo went in. There was something in his chest that he hadn’t felt for a long time. It was warm and calm and spread when he closed the gate behind him. He walked up to her door and knocked. Rey opened the door in a light blue silk robe. Her hair was done and looked wavier than usual and something fell in the pit of Kylo’s stomach.

“I was wondering if I—”

She nodded, and let him in.


	5. Chapter 5

“Do you want some tea?” Rey asked him.

“Erm, no. I’m good.” Kylo told her. Rey nodded and watched him squirm a little bit more. “I can uh, take the couch.”

“No,”

“No?”

“No,” Rey said. “This house is full of rooms. Take a bed. Besides, the couch is way too small.” Kylo pursed his lips, and then nodded.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“This.” He gestured around in frustration. “Being nice.”

“Because I feel like it.” Rey muttered quietly. “Get some sleep, Ren. I’ll have breakfast for you in the morning.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to, Ben. Just accept it.”

__

Rey was used to visions. She had one that night. It was different than the usual ones she had, she woke up wanting to ignore it.

__

_There was a prophecy, that the most powerful witch in the world, would be born in the middle of war. That she would be destined to bring the dawn to the new world as an age of evil tried to corrupt the world around her. In this prophecy, it was said that this witch would suffer great pain in her life time._

_It was said that she would be born of parents that didn’t love each other._

_That didn’t love her._

_It was said that she would not be of royal stock, but make her own standing in the world._

_It was said that she would be a great warrior._

_Rey was born in the middle of the Second Great War, to a witch that had placed a man under the effects of a love potion. Something that was strictly taboo and often forbidden in some parts of the magic world._

_Rey was not a warrior._

_She had been sold off to Unkar Plutt and forced to work in a factory with a bunch of other children when she had found out her powers. And that’s when they found her. Maz Kanata and the rest of her witches, they took her and they trained her._

_Still, Rey was no warrior._

_And she never would be._

__

Rey wasn’t lying when she said that she would have breakfast for Kylo in the morning. Waffles, to be exact. And he wondered what exactly he did to deserve this. He hadn’t exactly been kind to Rey, suspecting her of something every time that she offered him something nice.

“Morning.”

“Are you always so cheerful in the morning?”

“Yes!”

“Great,” Kylo groaned. Rey served him his waffles and then put a cup down right next to him.

“What’s this?”

“Tea. Drink it. It’s good for you.” Kylo was about to open his mouth to say something when Rey said, “If you ask me why I’m being nice to you, I’ll just be nicer to you. Call it aggressive compassion. Eat your breakfast.”

He did.

And he couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten something so good.

“Fuck.”

__

Kylo left soon after eating breakfast because he didn’t know what else to do. He wasn’t used to kindness, wasn’t used to Rey. He went back to his horse and back down the road to fight monsters. That was the only thing he knew. He knew how to fight until the days blended together and how to deny himself comfort or friends, and he would hope that this was the last that he saw of Rey. But it wasn’t. He wasn’t sure how long it was since the two of them saw each other last.

He couldn’t sleep.

He couldn’t fucking sleep and every damn day he thought about her, about going back to Coruscant to see her again.

Except he didn’t.

There was killing, and there was more killing.

Until the day he walked into Black Thorn tavern and got commissioned to find and kill a dragon. Something he normally didn’t do. “There are teams,” He said. “Of people. A witch is coming too, I can put you with her if that would be preferable.”

Then he saw her, walk into the bar. Wearing a blue dress and looking as regal as ever. _What the hell was she doing here? She didn’t kill people._

“Witcher, are you listening to me?” The commissioner asked. Then he turned and looked back at Rey. “Ah yes, that is the Witch I was talking about. Perhaps you know her, the Witch of the Valley. Her tracking skills are invaluable, easy on the eyes too. Would love to get my hands on—”

“Don’t talk about her like that,”

“Right. Sorry. Anyways, are you in?”

He and Rey locked eyes, and he raised an eyebrow, as if to ask her why she was here. This place was no place for someone with a kind heart. And Rey’s heart was all too kind. “I’m in.” He said. “As long as I’m on the same route as the Witch,”

“Done.”

__

_The first lesson that Rey learned when she became a Witch that this life was too cruel for people. That people were used to awfulness. That was why the only blood she shed were her own. She refused to shed anyone elses. She was often punished for this in her studies. “Why are you doing this to yourself, child?” Satine, one of the elder witches, asked._

_Rey glared daggers up at her. “People don’t deserve destruction—we shouldn’t be studying how to destroy things. We should rebuild, we should help people. We have talents that could help, cure disease, stop wars.”_

_“You can’t stop wars without hurting people, my dear. Any other notion is stupid and foolish. You need to bottle your emotion, and learn that power is the thing that you need to chase. Your kindness will be your undoing.” Rey cried as she felt a sharp pain in her hand. Satine was casting a spell, she could feel it cast fire in her veins. “Sometimes the only thing a flower can do for us is die, they may be beautiful and we may cherish it, but it’s weak until it becomes fertilizer. Show me that you’re not fertilizer.”_

__

Rey knew that she would see the Witcher here. But that’s not the reason that she came. She had other business to attend to.


	6. Chapter 6

Kylo finally recovered enough from his shock of seeing Rey to finally approach her. She had ordered some mulled apple cider and wasn’t even paying attention when he put his hand on her shoulder. “What the hell are you doing here?”

She didn’t jump. She looked like she had expected this reaction from him. _Was he really getting this predictable?_ “Probably the same as you,”

“This place isn’t for someone like you,”

This may be the first time Kylo ever saw her get irritated, but as soon as the emotion flickered across her face, it was gone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“This tavern is full of killers,”

“Oh no,” Rey said, “I didn’t know that.”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Kylo, I’m three hundred years old. You don’t live that long unless you learn how to take care of yourself.” She took a sip of her apple cider and sighed contently.

“Will you at least tell me why you’re here?”

“Not in here,” She said. “Outside,” She set her drink down and Kylo followed her. When she was sure that no one was following them, she turned around. “I need to make sure that the dragon doesn’t die,”

“So you’re here to save the dragon.”

“Yes, and you need to help me.”

“Dragons are just beasts,”

“You clearly don’t know much about where you came from then, do you Witcher?” The vagueness of that statement. Kylo didn’t know how to respond to that. “Magic, life, these came from dragons. From fire.”

“Fire destroys, Rey.”

“Fire is the circle of life, Ben.”

“Don’t call me that,”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child who can’t defend herself, and maybe I’ll stop calling you that. Anyways, are you going to help me on this one or should I enlist someone else’s help?”

“Alright, I’ll help. I’ll help. Just answer one question for me.” Rey nodded, swallowing hard. “Have I done something wrong?”

She could almost laugh at that, was he really that stupid? “It’s been a year and a half since we last saw each other. You didn’t visit—after I thought—”

“What did you think?”

“That we were friends,” There’s this sinking feeling in Kylo’s stomach that made him feel like a boy again, and he hated that feeling. He realized that what he thought was anger was really just disappointment. Loneliness.

“I’m sorry,” Rey bit the inside of her cheek and grimaced through the pain.

“It’s fine,” She said, “it’s fine. I shouldn’t have expected anything.”

“No, Rey. Don’t be like that.”

“Like what?”

“I’m messing this up,” He grumbled. “I’m not good at—I don’t want us to be on bad terms.” Rey looked so, so tired at that moment.

“Okay,” She said. “Now get some rest, Kylo. We have an early rise tomorrow.”

__

_When Rey was a little girl, she slept in a shed with holes in it. There was no light, no warmth. Only the cold and the darkness to keep her company. When Unkar would let her out, sometimes he would let her stoke the flames that warmed up the main house. That was when Rey knew what warmth was. She would get so close to the fire that the heat became dull to her when she was so closed to it, but it was something that she craved like a drug when she was away from it. She discovered when she was ten years old that she could not be burnt._

_The fire made her feel at home. Then things started to happen._

_Once her fingertips glowed with this luminescent energy that made her hands feel like they had electric currents flowing through them. She remembered her shed being illuminated at that moment, for just a short bit, and Rey wondered if there was anything else of life out there for her._

_If she had a choice and didn’t have to be nothing anymore._

____

When Kylo woke, he felt as if he was dreading getting out of bed. He was ultra-aware of the ache in his bones, and it felt too cold. Way too cold right now. Kylo pushed himself up out of bed and got dressed. He was about to leave his bedroom when he heard someone else come down the hallway. Kylo pushed open the door to find no one other than the bard headed straight for his door.

“Ah! Witcher, fancy seeing you here.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m here for the hunt!” He said enthusiastically.

Kylo wondered which cruel gods always wanted to inflict Poe Dameron on him whenever he wanted to do anything important. “Great.” He was just hoping that he wouldn’t interrupt him when he was around Rey. He didn’t need that right now. “Just don’t get in my way,” He sighed.

“Right. When have I done that?” Kylo had a list, but he didn’t have time to list all of that right now. He just rolled his eyes. He just needed to get down stairs and head out with Rey and the others. So, he did. Poe following in toe.

“Oh, Dameron. Nice seeing you here,” Rey said. She seemed in a better mood today.

“Wait, the two of you know each other?”

“Of course,” Poe said.

“Poe Dameron’s quite famous in some parts. The bard that made the Witcher famous.”

“Oh god,” If Poe started singing again, Kylo might die on the spot. “You’ve heard the song.”

“You walk into a tavern and they’ll sing if their drunk enough.”

“Come on Kylo, you know that you love it.” Poe laughed. That’s when the singing started. Kylo really did want to die.

__

_When Witchers are made, usually only three out of twenty that went into the program came out. But then there was Kylo’s year. The year when only one boy came out of the whole program, born anew. Snoke was very proud of the blood shed that year. And then, he was the next blood that was shed. His body hit the floor mutilated and broken._

__

The journey was going to be a long one, as any dragon lived high up in the mountains, and getting to the mountain would take a days journey at least. Rey was ahead of Poe and Kylo for some of the journey, striking up conversations with the other teams of knights, who all seemed to welcome the presence of a woman. “Are you really going to let them talk to her like that?” Poe asked.

“What do you mean?” Poe gestured forward and Kylo watched as one of the knights put a hand on the small of her back.

“Like that,”

“Not my problem,” Kylo felt his chest tighten. “She can do whatever she wants,”

“So you’re just going to let them flirt with her?”

“I don’t know why you think it would be a concern of mine.”

“Perhaps, because you like her.”

Kylo was silent for a long time before he said, “I don’t know where you ever would have gotten that idea.”

“So what would you do if I went up there and kissed her in front of you.”

“Well, she most likely wouldn’t want you to do that, so I’d punch you in your balls.”

“Uh huh, right. You have a crush, and if you don’t want one of those cocky and arrogant knights to steal her away. Do you?” Kylo stayed back, not doing anything, but he watched Rey as Poe drowned on and on and on. He just wanted this day to end as soon as possible.


	7. first blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of an evil

Rey had been struck by a dawning sense of dread ever since the mission started. Kylo was in a bad mood, presumably because Poe was talking his ear off. He kept glaring at her the whole time. And Rey—well—she hadn’t slept well in a long time. As the sun started to set and they finally made it to the bottom of the mountain, Rey decided to stay behind to talk to him. “Hey,” She wasn’t sure how to read the expression he gave her.

“Been better,” Poe said. Then he glanced between Rey and Kylo and said, “I’m going to catch up with the rest of the group.

Once he got far enough ahead, Kylo spoke. “Do you have a plan for saving this dragon?” Rey nodded.

“I have an idea, but the first thing we need to do is find it before the others.”

“We could keep going while the others make camp,”

“Not an option,” Rey told him. “We sleep tonight, leave at first light tomorrow.” Kylo nodded. The two of them walked in silence before, the absence of the sun leaving a darkness behind that Rey didn’t want to admit she was familiar with. Kylo was the one who put his cloak over Rey. She looked up at him. “You didn’t have to do that,”

“I wanted to,” He said. “You looked cold.” Rey let her buns fall down so that the cool air didn’t hit the back of her neck.

“Your hair looks good, down.”

“Thanks,” Rey felt herself go a little bit red, but she told herself that it was just the cold.

__

The trip to the top of the mountain was going to be treacherous. Rey knew that much. Magic practically seeped from this place, she could feel it. She and Ben got up earlier than everyone else, Poe waking up not that much longer afterwards. She could see Kylo’s exasperation on his face, but there was something else there too. Like he’d rather Poe be there too than with someone that wouldn’t make sure that his livelihood wasn’t in jeopardy.

It was amusing, to say the least. “So, why are there so many teams of people that have been hired to kill this dragon?” Poe asked. “It’s something that’s been bugging me.”

“At least five of them are cannon fodder,” Rey said. She hated the idea that other people were going to lose their lives because of this—but dragons were not things that should be slaughtered. “There are only three teams of people we should worry about, the people on ours. The assassin, Motti. The knights, Dodonna and Dreis. Then the other two teams. The Redstaff and the followers of the Dark Empire.”

“Good to know,” He said, “and what will happen if we don’t save this dragon?”

“Dragon blood is very rare a commodity that is very good in the most lethal curses and is used in resurrections. They’re only used by the darkest of witches who forsake the oath that they take when they’re initiated into the Sisterhood and Brotherhood. More universally—the spilling of dragon blood means the dawn of an era of darkness and evil.”

“Great,” Poe grimaced, “so no pressure.”

Rey turned to Kylo, “There are things out there that could torture us. Could kill us. Are you sure that you want to do this?”

“I’m not scared of death.”

“There are other things to be scared of,” Rey agreed, “and all of them will be around this dragon. So—I need to tell you, there are monsters here that know our fears, and they will use them against every single person that tries and gets to the top. Including me,”

“I don’t have any fears,”

Except, she knew that he did. She only nodded and said, “Good. Once the others get up, we will go.”

__

The path up the mountain was rocky and covered in a thick smog, but those were the least of Kylo’s concerns at the moment. Motti, the assassin that chose to wear thin brown rags all the way up the mountain, was getting overly friendly with Rey and he could tell it was making her uncomfortable. “Aye, you know I’ve slain more beasts than that Witcher behind you.”

“Is that so?” Rey asked.

“You’re lucky to be on my team, such a beautiful woman as yourself.”

“You’re so sweet,” There was no kindness or sincerity in Rey’s voice. A chill wind blew threw them and Kylo was beginning to wish that Rey had kept his cloak from earlier. He could see the assassin trying to grasp at straws, to get something out of her that wasn’t going to happen.

“So, you’re a witch.” He could hear the eye roll in Rey from behind her, even though she hadn’t spoken yet. “I bet you’re pretty impressive for a woman, if you’re out here.”

“ _For a woman,”_ Kylo scoffed. Motti turned around when he heard that.

“Did you say something, Witcher?”

“No,” Kylo shrugged.

“You clearly did, I heard it.”

“Poe, did I say something?”

“He didn’t say anything. You see, Kylo’s vocabulary is mostly ‘hmm’ and ‘fuck’.”

“Boys, I think that’s enough.” Rey said.

“Right,” Motti turned back around to her. “Now, my little dove. Why don’t you show me some magic?”

“I’m saving myself for the dragon,” Rey said sweetly. “You know, how it is. You must have to save your energy before you fight fearsome beasts as well.”

“Oh, yes. But it doesn’t take long for me to get rejuvenated after a kill. I doubt it takes you long either, so you should show me.”  


“If you insist.” Rey sighed. She gave him a humoring smile and then chanted something, maybe Latin, but in a blink of an eye, he disappeared.

Poe barked out a laugh, “What did you do?”

“Teleported him back to his hometown,”

“Which is where?” Kylo asked.

“Finse,”

“That’s over three month’s travel.”

“Exactly,” Rey said. She shrugged nonchalantly. Kylo felt his heart beat a little more rapidly than he was used to. He wasn’t sure what it was exactly, why it was that things that Rey did affected him in such a way. It scared the shit out of him. “You okay?” Rey asked him.

“Fine,” He told her, “I’m fine.”

__

The smog cleared around the afternoon, but that did not mean that their luck improved any. Now that Rey had gotten rid of Motti, Dodonna and Dreis were keeping their eye on the two of them. Obviously wary of their actions. It made Kylo feel more and more on edge by the second. Poe didn’t seem to be phased much by anything, even as they cleared bramble and thorn to continue. There was a thicket of bushes that blocked the path in front of them, where two of the other teams had come to a standstill as well.

“Why are people standing around?” Kylo asked.

“’ve been waiting for the Witch.” One of the men called out.

“Why?” Rey stepped forward, past Kylo and to the crowd of ten or so people waiting before the brambled thicket.

“Every time we try to cut the brush out of the way, it grows back even stronger. We already lost two men to it.” The closer Kylo got, the easier it was to see the little bits of torn flesh and muscle sticking to the thorns. He wanted to tell Rey to get away from it, but he did not.

“Ah,” Rey said. “Anyone got a torch on them?” It took a little bit of asking around, but someone made one and passed it to Rey. She lit it with another enchantment and brandished it at the thick brush. It burned away, the plant hissing and screaming. It wasn’t really the fire that made it shrink back, but the light. “That should do it, now come on.” Kylo and Poe were one of the first ten who crossed the threshold.

When the sketchier people started to come through, Kylo grabbed Rey’s arm. Rey cried out as the torch dropped and extinguished and he took her away from the thicket, leaving the rest of the team to be eaten alive. “What the hell was that?”

“I just gave us an advantage,”

“You just played dirty.”

“Only way we’re going to get there in time.”

“He’s right,” Dodonna said. He could see a flicker of irritation on Rey’s face, but she shook it off.

“Come on,” Rey said, “I want to get out of this place and somewhere safe to camp before nightfall.” She started walking before Kylo could get a chance to apologize.

__

Poe thought it was a good idea to start singing about an hour ago, and Kylo never wished to be deaf more in his life than in this very moment. This must have been a cruel joke that the gods decided to play on him, because he had never felt more miserable in his life. _“When a humble bard—”_

“—Oh god no,”

_“Graced to ride along—”_

“—I will punch you in your nuts so hard you can never have children if you continue—”

“—Let him sing, Witcher. It’s not like we have much better to do,” Dreis said. Kylo thought of all people a Knight would understand the importance of silence.

_“With Kylo of the Order, along came this song.”_

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve heard this before!” Rey giggled.

“ _From when the Black Wolf fought, a Silver-tongued devil, his army of elves, and his hooves did they revel…”_

“It’s about you,” Dreis smirked, “you should be honored.”

“It is pretty nice to have songs written about you,” Rey said, “isn’t it Kylo?”

“ _They came after me, with masterful deceit, broke down my lute and they kicked in my teeth!”_

“All I’m saying is you’re going to end up drawing something to us with all the racket you’re making,”

“Not like you haven’t handled worst,” One of the men from the Redstaff team said.

“True,” Rey said, “he’s got a point.”

“Whose side are you on?” And then Rey actually smirked at him. She actually smirked at him and that thing that Kylo’s heart had done earlier did that thing again. He hated it, yet he wanted it to happen again all at the same time.

“See, Ren? Your girlfriend loves me singing.”

Time to die.

“You should keep going,” Rey said, “I’d love to hear the song.”

“ _While the devil’s horns, minced our tender meat, and so cried the Witcher, that he can’t be bleat!”_

Kylo was almost thankful when the second wave of smog descended upon them.

__

When everyone got separated, the first person that Kylo was worried about was Rey. Poe was right next to him, looking like he had just seen a ghost. He had the sense to stop singing, thank god. “Shit,” Poe said, “shit, shit.” Rey’s words suddenly came back to haunt him as he felt a cold tingling sensation crept up the back of his neck.

Then he heard Rey call out to him.

“Rey! Where are you?” He heard her say something but was tinny and far off.

“We need to get out of here,” Poe said.

“I know,” Kylo told him. “We’re not leaving without Rey.”

“Are you perhaps short of a marble?” Poe shouted. “She’s a three-hundred-year-old witch that can take care of herself. We both—are very much human.”

“Technically I’m a mutant,” Kylo said.

“Is right now the time for technicalities?”

He was right. It wasn’t.

“No. It’s time to get Rey.” He took a step forward and suddenly Poe was no longer around him. The smog around him turned black and started to laugh in many different voices. One of them was very, very distinct. It was the voice of a man and a woman that he thought he would never see again. He whipped around to see two silhouettes of people standing in front of him. _There are beings in this forest who know your worst fear._

“Mother? Father?”

“Half right,” The voice next to his mother said.

Kylo felt his lip tremble. He was not weak, and this was not real. This was not real. This was not real.

“Luke,”

__

They were separated. That was the first thing that told Rey that something very bad was about to happen. “Ben!” She called out. “Ben!”

“Rey!” He called, “Where are you?”

The smog was so thick that Rey could barely see in front of her, she could barely breathe or answer. Before she could say anything, a laugh came from the depths of the Earth. Darkness seeping from the soil. The laugh of a man, and the laugh of a woman. It was the woman who appeared before her, in the ghostly visage of a Witch long passed.

“Phasma,” Rey felt like bile was rising in her throat. It couldn’t be. No.

“Yes, sweet sister.”

“It can’t be.” Rey took a step back. Phasma was supposed to be dead. Had been for over two hundred years. _She still is. This isn’t real._

“You know well that anything is possible, we are witches after all.” She needed to find Ben, but something was keeping her from turning around and plunging into the darkness to find him. “You are waiting for your little Witcher to save you, aren’t you?” There was something disembodied about her voice, a gross gargling sound coming from her throat every time she spoke. “I am afraid that he’s indisposed right now—isn’t as brave as he looks. Pity.”

“You’re not real.” Rey said. “I’m not afraid of you,”

“Oh?” Phasma pretended to be shocked. “I’m sorry—aren’t you the one who’s worst fear is being responsible for someone else’s death? You are the reason I died, Rey. Or did you forget that?”

“I tried to bring you back!”

“Evidently, not hard enough.”

“You went down the wrong path,”

__

“This isn’t real,” Ben said as he watched his mother and uncle come from the darkness. “You two aren’t real.” Except his mother looked real enough to touch. He took a step back and heard Rey call his name. He needed to call out. Wanted to call out, but he couldn’t.

“You really are pathetic,” Leia said.

“Shut up,”

“You know, every day I hear of another tale about you butchering people and creatures and I wonder—what would have happened if I had only had a girl instead.”

“I wish that I had killed you when I had the chance,” Luke said.

“You’re useless,”

“No one,” Luke started.

“And I mean no one,” Leia said.

“Will ever love you,” They said in unison. That’s when Ben remembered, this being that had separated them all. It was one being. It could be killed.

“Shut up, I know you aren’t them. Whatever you are.” He reached for his blade. “Come out and fight me!”

“Unfortunately, Ben.” Leia said. “We are right in front of you, if you want to be free of this pain. You must strike us down.”

Kylo steeled himself. This was what his training was for.

He could do it.

__

Phasma took a step closer to Rey. “Something’s coming. You know it is. You’ve known for a while,”

“Get away from me.”

Phasma stopped, “As you wish.”

“You’re not her. Not her.”

“Does it really matter though? Who I am?”

“Yes,” Rey said. “I know who you are though, and I know how to defeat you.”

“Oh? Who am I?”

“ _nəʊbədɪ,”_ Rey said. “You’re nothing. You’re not real. And you will get out of my head.” The darkness screeched and hissed around her, dissipating enough so that she could run through it, run straight to Ben, who was staring at the corpses of two people in front of him. An older woman and man.

“ _I’m sorry,”_ She had never heard him weep before, never. It was something that she never wanted to hear again. She immediately wanted to scoop him up and take him away from her. He was staring at his hands as if there was blood on him. It was part of the illusion, and it hadn’t worn off for him yet.

“Ben, Ben.” Rey put her hand on his shoulder and he nearly jumped out of his skin. His pupils coming into focus when he saw her.

“Rey? You’re okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s fine. You’re fine.”

“I—I killed them. My mother, my uncle—”

“No, you didn’t.”

“What?”

“You didn’t,”

“But I—” He turned back to see the illusion gone, and instead two members of the Redstaff team lay dead at his feet. It took him a minute to regain his full composure. “Oh,”

“It’s okay, we need to go.”

“Where’s the bard?”

“Dameron? I don’t know,” The smog dissipated, and they found four more corpses, but no bard in sight. She wasn’t sure how to read Ben’s expression. “He might not be dead,” Rey said. “Perhaps he’s just further up the path.”

“Right. Perhaps. Let’s get out of here,” He picked up his sword and started walking. Rey caught up to follow him. “Can we pretend like you didn’t see that?” Rey nodded silently. She wanted to tell him that it was okay, to be vulnerable. That that just made him a person, but she knew that he wouldn’t want that right now.

“You know you’re not alone, right?” She stared into those golden eyes again and felt her heart flutter. She wondered if he felt the same, or if he just thought her an annoyance still. Of the people that lay dead, Dreis and Dodonna were two of them. So was the entirety of the Redstaff team. That only left the teams behind the thicket and the Dark Empire team left uncounted for.

Perhaps, this would be successful.

“Ben?”

  
“Please don’t call me that right now,”

“Right. Sorry.”

__

They made camp together.

Camp wasn’t really camp. It was a fire and Rey next to him. She didn’t tell Kylo about her fear. He didn’t tell her about his. They just stayed there, the fire lighting up the darkness. “Are you cold?”

“I’m fine,”

“Okay,”

“Are you?”

“No,” Yes. Rey moved a little closer to him. So close that they were arm to arm, and Kylo felt like shouldn’t feel so excited that they were so much as touching. Then, she laid her head on his shoulder.

“I knew from the getgo that this would be dangerous,” Rey told him. “You didn’t have to come but you did. Thank you,”

“I’ve been in worse situations,”

“I can only imagine,” Rey said. “As have I,” Rey never told him about her past. Whatsoever.

“Like?”

She closed her eyes, “It’s nothing that you would be interested in. Nothing that would be great to tell. God, I’m so tired.”

“Rest,” He told her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Rest. We’ll get moving by dawn.” He kept true to his word.

__

When Rey woke, it was clear that Kylo had stayed up all night. “You should’ve woke me up.”

“It’s okay,” Kylo sighed. He glanced down at her and gave her something that was almost a smile. Maybe a half smile. “You looked peaceful, didn’t want to ruin that.”

“Right,” Rey said. “We should probably get going,” She got up and dusted off the back of her dress. It didn’t take long for the two of them to pack up and get going. Considering everything that had just happened a day before, they made some pretty good headway. At one point, Rey had taken Kylo’s hand. She expected him to make her let go of it, but he didn’t.

He just glanced down at it with a strange expression on his face for a second and kept walking, the two of them walking hand in hand. Rey wasn’t sure how long the two of them had been walking before reaching the first bridge, but she knew that they were significantly far up the mountain at this point, and there was no sign of the other teams.

She looked down, at the thick mist below them and the sound of running water. Then back to the rickety bridge in front of them. She was about to say something when she heard, “Oh hey guys.” Both her and Kylo nearly jumped out of their skin and turned around to see Poe standing behind them.

“And where the hell were you?” Kylo nearly shouted.

“Beats me,” Poe said. “I just passed out and ended up here. Thought I would wait for you,” Rey giggled as she could see the annoyance on Kylo’s face. “Plus, I really didn’t want to cross that bridge. I mean look at that thing, it looks so structurally unsound. So, lady’s first I guess.” Rey gave him a look and Kylo pushed him lightly towards the bridge. “Fuck! Guess I deserved that one didn’t I?”

He was the first one to set foot on the old rotted planks. “Are you sure that we have to do this?”

“Just get going, bard.” Kylo said.

“You can do it,” Rey tried to offer some moral support. “Don’t look down!”

“Easy for you to say!” Kylo went next, looking like he was barely phased at all. He held his hand out for Rey to grab and she grabbed it, stabilizing herself before she let go. “Oh god, oh god, oh god. Fuck this,”

“Poe, you need to keep going.” She told him. “If you stop, you’re more likely me to make a mistake.”

“Good to know!”

Surprisingly, they got across the bridge without anyone dramatically falling to their death. “Do you think there’s much more for us to go?” Kylo asked when they got to the other side.

“No,” Rey said. “There’s one more bridge and—an oracle.”

“An oracle. That lives up here?”

“Yeah,” Rey said, “he’s known for bringing the most accurate prophecies without all the frilly poetry.”

“Do we have to see the oracle?” Kylo asked.

“Yes,” Rey said, “Why?”

“Not a fan of prophecy,” Kylo grimaced, “don’t like other people pretending to write my destiny.”

“It’ll be okay,” She said. “I promise,”

__

The Oracle lived in a purple tent a little more than halfway up the mountain. Rey could feel the apprehension on Kylo’s face and she smiled, trying her best to calm him. “I’m going in.” She said. “Once I’m out, he’ll see you. And then we can go.” Kylo nodded and the two of them departed for a second. Rey couldn’t lie and pretend that she wasn’t nervous, because she most definitely was.

She really didn’t want to do this—but there were things that even she couldn’t see happening in the future. Things that she needed to know, so she opened the flap of the purple tent and stepped inside. It felt warmer, candles lighting up the inside so she could see the Oracle waiting for her at a round table.

“Ah, Rey. I know you would end up here eventually,” Rey bit her lip as she sat down opposite of him. “You’re scared of me—aren’t you dear child?”

“I’m not a child, I’ve walked this Earth longer than most men.”

“Yet you still have not been here as long as I,” He began, “now. I know that there are some things I am about to tell you that you already know.”

“Such as?”

“You cannot run from your destiny, the prophecies that have been spoken about you will become true. And no matter how long you try and delay it from happening, it will happen. A storm is coming, the sky will open up, and if you do not choose to participate, it will swallow you and your beloved up.”

“My beloved,”

“I think you know who your beloved is, your soulmate is right outside that tent.”

That was something that she already knew. It didn’t come as much of a shock, considering some of the things that had been spoken about her.

“Will I be able to save the dragon?” She asked.

“That is something that I also think you know the answer to,” He said, “I will spare you a lot of pain with a little bit of pain right now. Despite your many successes on this journey, you will not save the dragon.”

“Is it set in stone that I will not succeed?”

“No, but—”

“Then I think that we’re done here. I’ll send Kylo Ren to come in.”

__

Rey looked irritated when she came out of the tent, she told him to take what the Oracle said with a grain of salt, and now it was his time to go in. He wasn’t impressed by the inside of the tent. It definitely looked like something an old hermit would live in.

The man before him was short with a beard that was clearly unkempt and eyes much similar to Ben’s. A mutant then. Interesting. He sat down without introducing himself. “Ben Solo.” The Oracle said. Because of course, the Oracle knew his name. “What a surprise,”

“Rey told me that you weren’t surprised by anything,”

“It’s just a formality,” The man said, “now. There is a lot of stuff to go over, but something tells me that you don’t want to hear all of it. You’re not a fan of prophecy after all.”

“No,”

“Well then, I’ll make this short. For both of our sakes,” The Oracle said. “I want to say this to you, and you alone, because I feel like saying this now will spare you a lot of pain. But Rey is your soulmate.”

For a minute, it was like Kylo’s breath got taken away. “I thought soulmates were just a myth.”

The Oracle raised an eyebrow at him, “No doubt,” The Oracle told him, “there is a myth out there that our people love to believe in. The one where at the beginning of time, the first humans were created and they were both man and woman, and then the gods split them apart to make them pay for their hubris, their pride, all the damage they put upon the world around them. And partially there are things about that that are true, but soulmates are very much real. And she is yours.”

Nope. Nope. Nope. This couldn’t be happening, Kylo wanted to get up from his seat but he seemed to be glued to it. He hated this. “But you will lose her. Twice.” He said decisively.

“No,” He said, “no. I wouldn’t let that happen.”

“It will, no matter how hard you try and how badly you yearn for her. You will lose her twice, but in those times you will also find yourself.”

“But I am not lost,” He said.

“I think that you know that is not true,” The Oracle said. “You will find yourself before you start the hardest battle of your life. And it will be a harrowing one, both you and Rey will fight your way through it. You can not do it alone.”

__

Poe immediately started asking Kylo about what the Oracle said to him when they started to head up the mountain. “I don’t want to talk about it,” For once, Poe actually shut up. Which he was grateful for. He was pretty sure that he couldn’t take anymore of Poe’s constant talking or his dreadful singing. Besides—they were close. He could feel it. All three of them walked in this icy silence that was unusual for both Poe and Rey. Rey didn’t reach out for Kylo’s hand, and he wondered if he had done something wrong.

“So are we going to actually discuss a plan about how to save this dragon, or are we just going to go in blind?” Poe asked eventually.

“I have a plan,” Rey told him. “There’s a chance that another team is going to come and try to ambush us once we try and relocate the dragon, but I think that we have a pretty good chance of making this work. Poe, you’re going to be look out and as soon as you see someone coming you yell and run the opposite direction. Kylo and I will take care of the rest.”

“I can be more useful than that,” Poe said.

“Some of these people have magic, she’s trying to make sure you do something that will keep you safe.” Kylo grumbled. “Be grateful for that.”

“I want to help though,”

“This is helping, and we don’t need anymore arguing coming out of you.”

__

Rey could say without a doubt, that she was not ready for whatever was about to go down. What the Oracle had said had put her on edge, no matter how hard she tried not to be. She smiled and gritted through her anxiety though. She had two other people that she needed to make sure that she kept safe as well as this dragon. “We’re getting close,” She told the two of them. “I can feel it.” She glanced back at Kylo and Poe, Poe looked like this was just another day for him, but there was something in Kylo’s eyes that told her that he wasn’t ready for this either.

For some reason, that made her more nervous. She balled her hands up into fists, letting her fingers dig into the meat of her palm to stop her hands from shaking. “This place,” Kylo said, “it feels off.”

“Every place we go to feels off,” Poe said, “you’re going to have to be more specific, Witcher.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Why did Kylo have to be right? He could see Rey’s face pale. She didn’t speak but he knew something was wrong.

  
“Get down on the ground!” She shrieked. That was when the first wave of arrows came sailing through the air. Kylo was the one that brought Rey to the ground with him, cover her body with his as the arrows came down.

As soon as the first wave of arrows stopped, they all got up and started to run towards the cave. Kylo could hear the dragon cry and wondered if they were too late to stop it. Rey ran forward, ignoring the black clad warriors that started to descend upon them. The Dark Empire really did think ahead of everything else. Didn’t they?

Kylo grabbed his blade and readied himself for a fight. Poe was close behind. Blood was about to be spilled. Knights started coming down the slope and Rey cast a slope. It was as if time stood still around everyone but them, and they ran into the cave without harm. “That’s not going to hold them for long.” She said.

“Great, what do we do now?” Rey turned around to see the shadow of something big and reptilian in the corner of the cave.

“You both stay back,”

“What if that thing hurts you?”

“It won’t,” She said, “Just keep watch.” _I can do this, I can do this, I can do this._ Kylo watched Rey move deeper into the cave with an awakening fear in him.

“Watch for others,” He told Poe. He kept his eyes on Rey the entire time.

“She’s going to be fine,”

“Keep your eye on the entrance.”

__

Rey had only ever heard tales of dragons, of their ferocity and their serenity. It was something that Rey had always admired. Something far more beautiful than most creatures. The creature in front of her was one that she knew had once been majestic, but now had a gash that was long and wide, from the top of it’s back to the bottom of it’s belly. Thick red blood oozed from it and the dark green creature hissed at her, only smoke coming out of it’s nose.

“It’s okay,” Rey said, “there’s nothing to be scared of here. I won’t hurt you, I’m here to help.” It’s eyes narrowed in slits at her, as if not sure that she was telling the truth though. She was telling the truth. “I can help you, it’s okay.” And that’s when Rey sees it, the egg that is under the dragon’s stomach.

The only reason this thing was still alive was because it was trying to protect it’s child. Rey swallowed her pain and said, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” The dragon moved a little and Rey took off the thin material of her cloak to wrap around the egg. The dragon moved back a little more when Kylo shouted.

“They’re here!” Rey could only hope that the egg would go somewhere safe, once she teleported it away. Then she could focus on the other dragon. She could—the egg teleported out of the grasp of the Dark Empire, but a spear pierced the flesh of it’s neck and it let out a horrible scream. Kylo pulled her backwards as fighters started entering the cave. It was fast, a foot soldier came at her with their metal staff and she took it back, yanking it out of their grasp with as much strength as she could muster.

She didn’t like fighting.

She did not take a life that day, but so much more was lost.

Once the dragon died, trying one last time to fly out of it’s cave, only to be shot down, Rey tried to fight. She tried to keep the Dark Empire from getting to it, but she could not.

She failed.

It was then that it dawned on her that there was still blood on her hands. They were considerably far away from the mess now, and all three of them were alive, thanks to Rey’s ability to teleport. That was the only thing that Rey was grateful for right now. Her knees hit the rocky gravel side of the path and her hands jutted out, and all of her food from the day prior came up.

“Rey,” She could feel Kylo’s hand on her back, but the world was spinning, and it felt like it was burning a whole through her dress and she didn’t want to be here. She was spiraling. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Get away from me.” Rey said.

“What?”

“I said, get away from me.” The dark tone in her voice was one that she hated to hear, even coming from herself. She got up and dusted off, trying her best to regain her composure. “We lost,”

“I’m sure that we didn’t lose, creatures die every day. And perhaps it’s a bad omen but—”

“Bad omens aren’t silly little superstitions, Witcher.” She said. “You of all people should know that,” She raised her voice and she didn’t even care. She still felt nauseous, like she was going to throw up yet again, even though there was nothing left in her stomach.

“Rey, I get that you’re upset but—”

“Oh, do you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh nothing, it’s just that every time I try to be emotionally available around you, you act like I’m unimportant or weird but now—when you’re trying to minimize this _shit that just started!”_

“I don’t—”

“I don’t want to talk to you right now,” She was crying. This was all her fault. She should have done something different to stop it. She should have anticipated that there would be too many people there. She should have gotten there sooner, but she didn’t. She turned and started to walk away.

“Rey, where are you going? Rey?”

__

“Well,” Poe said. “I guess that it’s just you and I now.” Kylo turned around with an intensity he normally didn’t use. Especially not on someone like Poe. “Sorry, too soon—”

“Damn it, Poe!”

“Look, I’m sorry I just—”

“Why is it that every time I’m in a shit situation, it’s you, shoveling it?”

“That’s not fair,”

“You know what’s not fair, the fact that I’m stuck here with you when I’d much rather be anywhere else.” He turned around and started to leave.

“I thought we were friends, Ben.”

Ben.

Ben. Why did everyone use that damned name?

For a second, he stopped, but he didn’t turn to look back at him. He just started making his journey back to Coruscant. 


	8. reawakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short, fluffy break from a longer action packed chapter.

There is still blood on her hands by the time she gets back to her manor. Teleportation cuts her journey down from five months to five minutes, and she immediately gets herself into a bath. It takes about an hour for her to get all the blood off her. She had scrubbed her fingernails until the skin underneath them was raw.

It took everything in her to be able to get up and fall into her bed, where she stayed, feeling like it was one of the last safe spaces she would have for a long time. So, there she stayed.

__

_It was winter and death was in bloom. Drops of blood shown in the snow, sparking like tiny rubies. “Your next lesson,” Bazine said, “is in the law of equivalence. In order for magic to give life, it must take, and vice versa.” Rey was shaking like a leaf, and she was pretty sure that everyone could tell that she did not want to be here. Didn’t want to do this._

_Phasma squeezed her hand, attempting to calm her nerves. Her expression was much similar to Rey’s. Rey sucked in a breath as she was about to get ready for the rest. The demonstration, the lesson. “Today, you must take a life in order to give a life back.” This is where the lesson began, Bazine snapped her fingers, and there in front of her appeared two people on the verge of death._

_An sick, elderly woman, and a child. “Much like we did with the flower and the bull, but this time, on a much bigger scale. Now—any volunteers?”_

_No one stepped forward._

_“Rey, why don’t you come up here first?”_

__

Kylo had never been good at emotions, but the five months it took him to get back to Rey’s manor gave him time to think of what he was going to say to her. What he was going to do. Still, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw. He opened the gate to the manor and found the flowers that led up to her porch were on the verge of death. Cobwebs covered portions of the house in very thick layers.

He knocked on the door and it swung open. “Rey,” He called, “Rey, are you here?”

He wasn’t sure what he would do if she wasn’t here, after all the travel. Everything he thought about saying to her. He felt bile threatening to leave him as he thought of all the reasons her house could look so abandoned, but as he walked through it, it seemed as if the house was trying to breathe life back into itself.

Rey was here. He just had to find her.

Candles lit themselves as he walked, cobwebs melted away, and the cozy manner of the house began to reappear. The pallor and coldness that had inhabited the house starting to recede, bringing warmth to it. That’s when Ben found it, in the sea of doors in one of the many hallways he traveled down, he found her bedroom.

“Rey,”

“In here,” Her voice was small and weak, and she made no move to get up. He could hear her through the door.

“Can I come in?”

“Knock yourself out,” Kylo released a breath that he didn’t remember holding in when he heard her voice. Slowly, he opened the door.

__

_Once Bazine got an idea in her mind, there was no reasoning with her. So, even though Rey did not want to make this choice, she stepped forward. Limbs shaking like a willow tree. She couldn’t look the child or the woman in the eyes. “Now.” Bazine said. “There comes a time in a witch’s life, where she must choose between one or the other, and have to deal with the consequences that befall her. So—you must make a choice. And if you don’t, I will make a choice for you.”_

_This was when the pleading started, when both people told her why they should live. Rey closed her eyes, wanting to throw up. “It’s something that you have to deal with, Rey. Death—it is a part of everyone’s destiny.”_

_“It doesn’t mean I have to be the one to cut someone’s life short,”_

_“If you want to survive, sometimes it will come to that.”_

_If you want to survive. Both of these people were innocent, though. But one had a much longer life that they could live if Rey just healed him. So, the child got to live that day, and the old woman did not. That night, Rey threw up for two hours. Phasma was right beside her, telling her that it was okay, that was the only choice she could have made._

_It was the right choice._

_It didn’t mean that Rey had to like it._

____

When Kylo opened the door, Rey could hear him steel himself, before coming in and sitting at the foot of her bed. She realized that she must look awful. Spending most of your time in bed, only getting up when you absolutely need to doesn’t do wonders for your appearance. “It’s been a while,” He said. She nodded but didn’t say anything in return. “I looked for you on the trail, wondered how you had gotten away so quick, then I reckoned it must have been teleportation.”

He didn’t ask if she was okay, which she was glad of. Because the answer to that question was fairly obvious. “Is there something that I can do for you?” He asked instead. The way he asked it was weirdly not as gruff as usual. “Anything?”

“You didn’t have to come,” Rey finally spoke.

“Yes, I did.” He told her. “You’ve done so much for me, you’re important to me. Of course, I had to come.” It was then that Rey felt like she was going to cry again. Her chest tightened and she looked away from Kylo and closed her eyes.

“You must think I’m being silly,”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” He told her, “and you’re not.” There weas so much that Rey wanted to tell him. About how scared she was. For herself. For him. For everyone. She just didn’t know exactly how to say it.

__

Death for a witch is never a permanent thing. Even when burned at the stake, their essence, their magic, is never really dead. It stays there, festering in the dark and waiting for it to be harnessed so they can rise from the ashes, much like a phoenix. Until then, they’re stuck in a sort of limbo. A world between worlds. And for years, this is where Phasma of Tarth resided.

Her soul stuck in a cage, flickering between the mortal realm, the between, and the afterlife like a candle flame flickering in the night. Her existence clung to the darkness. Waiting for someone to come along and give it new purpose, and then she woke up. Cold, but clothed in armor, in a log house that reminded her of the child stories she heard of the house Baba Yaga.

She took in a deep breath of fresh air and sat upright, her head spinning. “I would take it slow if I were you, we have a lot of work to do.”

__

Kylo was not good at emotion. He had never been good at it. Telling Rey that she was important to him was the most vulnerable thing he had done in a long time, and even when he did them, everything in him told him to go. He shouldn’t be allowed to have that sort of emotional vulnerability with someone. It would not end well for him, and he would end up losing her. The last thing he wanted to do was lose her.

But he would also lose Rey if he ran.

So, he stayed.

“Are you sure that there’s nothing that I can do for you?”

“Actually, yes. There is something you can do for me,” She told him. She glanced up at him with her big doe eyes and Kylo felt his heart stop. “Stay,” She whispered. Rey looked so scared that he wouldn’t. Her eyes are watering up and she’s still bundled in her blanket. “Stay with me. I don’t want to be alone right now.” She gestured to the other side of the bed.

“You want me to—”

  
“Please.” Kylo took in a deep breath through his nose and then exhaled.

“Okay,” He said, “let me get my armor off.” It was hard to say why his hands were shaking when he undid his armor, but they were. When he was left in nothing but his undershirt and his pants, he started to climb into bed with her.

“Do you sleep in your pants when you’re in an actual bed?” Rey asked.

“No,”

“You can get down to your briefs, to be comfortable.” He does. Still nervous, and then slides into bed with her. He’s not sure what he expected when Rey pressed into him. Since he can’t even remember the last time he’s had positive human contact. But she’s warmer than he thought that she would be, and soft. His arms are around her and all of the sudden he doesn’t want her to leave them. He wants her to stay there forever.

It felt right for her to be there.

Kylo felt himself wishing that they could stay like this forever.


	9. Chapter 9

Rey had learned when she was young that at some point, all good things had to come to an end. It was something that she had always had trouble at coping with. When Ben gets up, she immediately feels like she’s lost something, but she doesn’t complain. She supposed it was nice that she even got to be that closed to him in the first place. She gets up, and dawns a fake smile that tells Ben everything’s okay and she’s fine. “I suppose that I should be headed out soon.” He tells her gruffly.

“I suppose so,” She tried her best not to sound disappointed about the fact that he was leaving her—again—but then again she wasn’t really sure what she expected. Especially from him. “Do you need anything from me?”

“Um—no,” He said. “I will come back, this time. And not be away for so long.” That promise is something that she wished made her feel better, but it doesn’t.

“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep.” She told him before she could stop herself. She doesn’t want to be left again. She hated being lonely, and she didn’t want to have to deal with that.

“I’m not making a promise I can’t keep,” He said, with a stubborn tone that Rey wasn’t used to hearing.

“Okay then.” She said. “Goodbye, Ben. I’ll see you later.”

__

He doesn’t object this time when she used his real name. He’s too busy reeling from whatever _that_ was to really process anything at all. She had given him this smile that was so convincing that he thought that everything was okay before he told her that he was going to head out again, and then it dropped and he could see on her face that everything was still really really not okay. He wished that he could take it back and told her that he would stay, but she walked out of the room and when he followed her into the hallway, she was gone. “Rey?” He called.

There was no answer and he had absolutely no clue what he should do next.

So he did what he did best, and he went back out to kill monsters.

__

Rey had not been the type of witch to go out and actively seek work in a long while. But here she is, in the hall of the Queen of the country of Mandalore, now offering her services to royalty. Yet again. It’s not something she does for anything other than healing most of the time. All kingdoms ever seemed to do was get into wars, and she never wanted to be a part of it. But now—something was coming—and once it came, Mandalore was one of the smallest nations around, so it would be up for grabs first.

“How come I’ve never heard of you before?” Satine questioned.

“I possess a certain discretion that most other witches don’t possess,” She said nonchalantly. “I don’t yearn for fame like others. Just to make sure that I do my job well.” That seemed to be enough for her.

“I do have something,” She told her nonchalantly. “And I need use of a mage who can teleport. My god daughter is giving birth to a child, and her husband is going to kill it if it’s a girl. I need you to make sure that both my god daughter and my child make it back to the castle safe and sound. You can kill her husband if you want, he’s a no good piece of shit warlord who should have died from syphilis a long time ago.”

Rey chuckled a little, despite the violent and vulgar talk. “I won’t fail you, your Grace.”

“Good.” She said. “I’ll have my knights debrief you and accompany you on the journey.”

“Thank you, your grace.”

“You will be rewarded handsomely when you get back.”

Rey doesn’t say anything about not needing an award, nods, bows, and leaves when she is dismissed. There’s a stone settling in her stomach in anticipation, waiting for something that she knew was going to happen, but was trying desperately to prevent. Perhaps in vain.

She wondered what Ben was doing right now.

__

There were times when travelling when all surroundings seemed to look identical. This didn’t happen to Ben a lot, but when it did, he knew that he was tired. He should really get some sleep, but he just kept walking, for what seemed like forever. There was nothing, for miles and miles and he was used to it, but he was longing to stop. He wished, sometimes, that he didn’t do this. That he wasn’t a Witcher.

Maybe him walking for so long was a way of punishing himself for leaving Rey, for not being smarter and telling her that he would stay with her and they could fight whatever thing was coming together. Maybe then he could just find a place to lay down and rest, and he wouldn’t feel so tired again.

His train of thought is left abandoned when he felt a knife press to his back. “Best to not move, if I were you.” A gruff voice says. In front of him file six from the woods, muggers, thieves, other types of scoundrels.

“Are you sure that you want to do this? I don’t have much on me.”

“Oh, we’re not here to rob you.” One of them said. “There’s been a bounty placed on your head,”

“By whom?” He asks, already bored out of his mind. He watched the man who told him about the bounty smile, his lips curling into this putrid and gnarly expression that he had seen had many people before Ben repeated himself. “Um—did you not hear me? Can you at least tell me who wants to do the courtesy of putting me out for my misery for money?”

Someone rolls their eyes, “The Dark Mistress, Phasma and her consort have called for your death. The gods have deemed it necessary to proceed.”

“Well then,” Ben said, “I guess that makes sense.” Everyone stands there, weirded out by Ben’s calm demeanor. “Let’s get on with it, then.”


	10. Chapter 10

The path was curved and narrow, and Rey wished that she could go back, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t really one for working with other people that weren’t Ben or Poe, but she knew that she had to work for this sort of thing. She wondered what they were going to do. “Miss,” One of the knights knocked on the door to her carriage and she opened the little partition to talk to him.

“Yes?”

“I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be getting to the correct location within the hour.” The knight told her.

“Good. Anything else?”

“No,” He said, “okay. Thanks.” She closed the partition again and sat back, readying herself for what was going to come.

__

Ben had dealt with situations like this before. People had ganged up on him and said they were going to kill him and Ben really didn’t care. It’s not like they could—or had enough experience to even get a hit out on him. But there was something different about this time. Ben felt just how exhausted he actually was and it wasn’t great. He knew that if he played his cards right, he could still get out of this alive.

But that was only if he played his cards right. Before he got out another remark though, a crossbow bolt came flying through the air, killing the man behind him. That was enough for Ben to start to go into action, grabbing his sword, he feinted to the left when the nearest man went to the right, piercing the vulnerable side of his armor before moving on. Another crossbow bolt took out another man, and then another, and then another.

In the end, Ben and whoever his mysterious helper were had gotten rid of the threat.

His mysterious helper. Ben turned to the bushes, to see Poe Dameron walking into view. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Don’t sound so grateful.” Poe rolled his eyes. “Thought that you could use some help.”

“Thank you,” He said. “Really. I appreciate it a lot.” Poe gave him a weak smile and started to gather the crossbow bolts that he had put into the muggers that were going to kill Ben earlier. He didn’t say anything, but Ben knew what he had to say. “I’m sorry about—the last time that we—yeah.”

For a second, Poe looked genuinely confused, and then he broke out into a full-on grin. “Wow, buddy. I didn’t think that you would actually say anything.” Ben rolled his eyes. “But it’s fine. It’s been a while, so I forgive you.”

“Really?”

“Really. It’s fine.”

“Okay,” Ben wasn’t sure what else to say.

“So—what are you doing?”

“Just, walking.” He said.

“Seems like a rather long way from Coruscant to walk,”

“Yes, well I’ve been known to take rather long walks every once and a while.” Poe snickered a little bit and then glanced up the pathway and back to Ben.

“Do you mind if I—?”

“Come on,” Ben shrugged, “I could deal with an annoying bard along the way.” Poe seemed genuinely excited when he said that. “As long as you don’t sing that god awful song,”

“What song?”

“You know the song,”

“Oh,” Poe grabbed his lyre. “You mean this song,” He started strumming the strings.

“Ugh, forget that I said anything.”

“When a humble bard—”

“Yeah, never mind.”

“Oh you know that you love it, Witcher.”

__

One thing that Rey would never be able to understand was the way that humans evolved and yet never seemed to evolve at the same time. She had been alive for several hundred years at this point, and it seemed that people were still killing women for bearing girls. Like it was their fault or something. She was there to get the girl out by the time she birthed a child, who was of course a girl, and now the two of them were riding alongside the countryside back to the people.

What she couldn’t seem to understand either was the fact that this woman couldn’t really seem to care about the fact that her child was crying. “Ugh, that’s the third time in the hour.” She rolled her eyes. “I just want to get some sleep.”

“Let me see,” Rey said. “Perhaps I can help.”

“Be my guest,” The woman told her, “I just want to get some sleep.” Rey took the baby in her arms and that seemed to be enough to quiet the baby’s shrieks.

“Ssh,” She said. “It’ll be okay, darling. It’ll be okay.” With that, the baby’s shrieks turned into little gurgles of happiness and Rey felt something drop in her stomach. _This really isn’t something that you should be thinking about right now._ Rey cradled the child and the mother shut her eyes. She didn’t even have to cast a spell to get the child to start to nod off in her arms. “Everything will be okay.” It was something that she couldn’t really promise.

Especially not to a child that was born into a world that was so angry, and cruel. But she would bless this child as soon as they got back to the palace, and she hoped that she would grow into a strong and beautiful Queen one day. One that would rule her people justly and live in an era of peace.

But that was something that she could only hope for a few quick seconds, because a long, jagged spear pierced the side of the carriage, and the mother screamed, as knights started to fall into place and fight.

__

_Later_

Ben and Poe finally found a place to sleep up ahead, both of them taking turns keeping watch. Eventually, the morning came and they got out on their way again. “God, I don’t know how you do this regularly.” Poe said. “I’m starving.” It was then that Ben remembered that he no longer carried the magical basket that replenished his food that Rey had given him so long ago.

Which was something he knew he was sorely miss later. Right now was not a good time to go about mentioning it, because he was sure that it would just piss Poe off that Ben had made such an oversight. They started walking more, and then they came upon it.

A barren patch of land, with corpses scattered all around.

There were scorch marks on the ground and a tree had fallen, knights had been crushed like they were made of paper, and the earth around them had turned this ruddy mixture of blood and earth. “Oh my god,” Poe said. “What the hell happened here?” Ben saw a carriage that had been torn in half, and went towards that. His sword was drawn.

There were several things of note that he was not expecting to find there. A finger. A royal ring. A scrap of cloth that had belonged to a green dress that looked a lot like something that Rey had worn before, and a small cloth. Embroidered in silver was her name. Rey. It had blood on it.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> small update if you're going insane from quarantine

“Maybe she’s still alive,” Is the first thing that Poe says as soon as he realizes what Ben is holding in his hand. “Finding that doesn’t mean anything.” Ben drew his sword and started looking for tracks that would indicate where Rey had gone. He couldn’t talk right now, couldn’t speak, because if he did he was afraid that he might lose it. It didn’t take long for Ben to find the tracks of hers and someone else’s. They travelled ten feet into the woods before they disappeared. Ben glanced down at the ground and saw scorch marks.

“Damn it,”

“What?”

“She teleported from here,” He said, “I don’t have any idea where she could’ve gone to.”

“Okay well maybe we can—” Poe stopped when Ben threw his sword against the side of the torn up carriage.

“God fucking—”

“Ben—”

“ _Don’t,_ ” He said, his breathing was ragged and he could feel his blood boiling in his chest. “Just fucking _don’t_ ,” He moved back to the scorch marks on the ground and touched them lightly, not really sure what he was expecting. What he saw was a glimmer of something. An idea. “They teleported west,”

“How do you—”

“They teleported west,” He said, “We’re keeping on ahead.” He started walking, ignoring everything that Poe was saying to him. He needed to get to Rey, he needed to make sure that she was safe. He wasn’t quite sure why, or why this mattered to him so much, but it did.

“Ben—”

“We’re going west, are you following me or are you staying?”

“Of course, I’m following you. I’d follow you anywhere,” Poe said. “I think that you worrying yourself sick isn’t going to help Rey though.”

“Who said I’m worried?”

“You have an incredibly horrid poker face, I—”

“Listen, _I know._ ” Ben said. “I know that worrying isn’t going to help her and I know that I shouldn’t because I don’t have the right—especially after how I’ve treated her, but I can’t help it. Of course, I’m worried sick, she’s the first person I’ve cared about since—” He cuts himself off because he’s yelling and he shakes his head.

“Let’s just keep tracking.” Ben said. “We’ll find her.”

__

**Before**

Rey was bleeding. There was blood in her mouth. Dripping down her arm, her leg. Her head felt light and she could barely step forward, but she still had people to protect. As soon as the carriage ripped open, Rey and the baby’s mother ran. Rey was encountered with another witch, with strange symbols carved into his flesh and some sort of monster that resembled an offensively large scorpion. It’s stinger was razor sharp, and it made clicking noises, like it was readying itself for attack. “Run!” Rey shouted.

She and the girl made it ten feet before Rey could cast a portal, letting the two of them into a different land letting them rest for a second. The baby was crying again, balling it’s little fists and letting out shrieks of terror. This time the mother was holding it to her chest. “What the hell was that?” She said.

“Looks like someone was enlisted to kill you by your husband.”

“Great,” The woman cursed, “all because of this wretched child!” Before Rey could open her mouth to tell the woman not to condemn her child like that, a portal opened, and the witch that had caused carnage against them stepped through it.

“Go!” She screamed. “Run! Hurry!”

She opened another portal, knowing that the energy would soon not be enough to sustain herself.

She wasn’t sure how long she and the other girl and her ran, but in the end it didn’t matter. She and the baby died, just like the other witch and his pet wanted.

__

Ben and Poe walked for a week before they found her. She was by the shore, in her tattered dress, sea salt and water tangling her hair. She was still bloodied, her eyes and nose red. At first, she was lying down right next to the waters and all Ben saw in the distance was a black mass. And he thought— _please don’t let her be dead._ He wasn’t sure what he would do if she was dead. He ran towards her, “Rey! Rey! Rey, please be alive!” Poe was right behind him. He picked her up and she woke up.

“Ben? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Ben said, “what happened?” She looked dazed and upset, and sat up slowly, shaking her head. Then she turns her head to the side, and Ben sees it. A small grave, the size of a child.

“It’s my fault,” She said, tears in her eyes, “it’s all my fault.”

“Rey, whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault.”

“You don’t understand, it was my job to protect that kid and I failed—”

“Rey—”

“I failed, Ben. I didn’t do my job and now, a child and her mother are dead, and I _killed a person,_ but not before letting him hurt them. I-god!” She screamed and got up, turning away from both her and Poe. “I’m such and idiot!”

“You’re blaming yourself for not raising a sword and killing,” Ben said, “that’s not your way, and that’s fine. Rey, it’s fine. You have compassion for people and that is honestly an admirable thing. It’s something that not a lot of people have these days, it’s rare. You shouldn’t blame yourse—”

“Ben, my pacificism got a child killed.” She said. “This, running that I’ve been doing from conflicts, this denial, it’s all been putting people in danger because I’ve been selfish with my desire to not want to fight. This is my fault.” Ben bit his lip. He hated seeing her cry. It was one of the worst things he had ever seen.

“Rey, I think that you’re not looking at this clearly. Let’s just go home—and you can rest and we can all talk about this later. I was worried about you.” He approached her like he would a wounded animal, carefully. He pressed his hand into her cheek, caressing it slowly. “It’s okay,” he told her. “It’s okay. Let’s just go home. You need to eat and be somewhere warm right now. It’s okay. Let’s go home.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Why are you still here?” Was the first thing that Rey had said to Ben in about three weeks, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“I’m here for you,” He said, because he was here for her. He was here to make sure that she was okay, and she hadn’t been taking care of herself unless Ben had made her do something. Which wasn’t good. Rey was silent for a minute before she said.

“What changed?”

“What do you mean?”

“You abandon me for a year, and then after the dragon you stay, and then you abandon me again. What’s different this time? Or are you just going to pull the same disappearing act that you’ve pulled, time and time again, with no regard for my feelings or how much it hurts to see you leave every time when you don’t so much as say goodbye.” Ben was speechless. Mostly because Rey had never had an outburst like that, but she had also just been traumatized.

“You know, I came a long way to make sure that you were okay. I walked, for a long time to find you. A very, very long time. Because I saw the wreckage and I thought that you were dead.” Rey looked up at him.

“I’m not,” She said, “so you’ve done your part. You’ve played the hero. You can go.”

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” She rolled her eyes, “what am I doing, Kylo?” Ben could see tears gathering in her eyes, and he knew that she was upset.

“Rey, I’ve told you this once and I’ll tell you again, I’m not leaving.”

“Well, this time I want you to.” She said. “I think that it would be better if you didn’t see me right now and I didn’t see you. Because honestly, I’m tired. I want to be alone.” Ben rolled his eyes and left her room, shutting the door behind him. But he didn’t leave the house. He sat down on the couch and waited. He waited about an hour and went back up to her room.

She was asleep.

__

Rey had done a great deal in her life not to feel angry. She was really good at repressing her emotions, because when they got out of control, people got hurt and she hated hurting people. It hurt her soul, seeing creatures or humans in pain. It always had. A lot of the time, when she was little and she couldn’t control her power yet, she was the reason for that pain.

Now, as an adult, she lie in her bed tossing and turning, thinking to herself about the fact that there was a war coming. About the fact that she failed to keep a child alive, and how the mother was dead as well. She wasn’t sure exactly what do or how to grieve, or how to process. She was just there. Physically. Not mentally.

Every bone in her body hurt.

She was sore from crying, sobbing.

She couldn’t sleep.

She couldn’t eat.

Thinking about getting out of bed was enough for her to vomit. There was just this _ugly_ thing that was boiling inside of her, and it was waiting for the right moment to be let out. Rey closed her eyes and tried to think of times when she was happy. Tried to think of how this could get better.

She couldn’t come up with anything, really.

And then there was Ben.

Right there, giving her soups. Preparing her baths. Making sure she wasn’t in bed all day every day, and it frustrated her. Why was he here? Honestly, that was something that she wanted to know. Because it seemed like every single time she had needed him before, every single time she so much as wanted someone to talk to, he wasn’t there. He would freak out and leave and he would make her feel even more alone than she had been before.

She told him that she wanted to be alone. He let her be alone to sleep, but aside from that he was right next to her.

Sometimes, she would wake up having nightmares. When she woke up screaming in a cold sweat, Ben would be there. He would hold her and tell her that everything was okay, and then he would wait for her to go back to sleep before she left.

It was about a month that had gone by before she got out of bed without Ben asking her to. She went downstairs and made some waffles, waiting for them to cool when Ben woke up on the couch. “You know that there’s other beds in this house. You can sleep in a room, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s easier to hear when you need something out here.” It was when Ben said things like that that made it so hard for her to be mad at him. She absolutely hated it. Hated the way her heart melted for him sometimes. There was a way that he looked at her that just made her heart skip a beat and forget her worries for a minute. She wished that it could be that way all the time, but she knew that it couldn’t be.

“You want a waffle?” He nodded, glancing down at the plate of waffles and then back up to her.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Sure,” She said. She got a plate down and put two on his plate. “Go ahead, eat up.”

“Thanks,” He sat down across from her at the counter. They both ate in silence for a moment before Ben said something, “So, do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“About what you were doing?”

“What were you doing out there?” Rey shot back at him. “Before you found me,”

“I believe that I asked you first, what happened Rey?”

“An assassin got sent after this woman and her child that I was supposed to protect and I failed because of my insistence to not want to kill other living things. That’s what happened.” She stabbed her waffle rather violently. “What about you?” She said.

“Well, I had been just walking for the longest time. If I’m being honest I didn’t know what I was doing really, but I started to regret leaving. A lot.”

“Really?”

“Mhm,” He coughed a little bit before he said rather quickly, “I missed you.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” He said, “I missed you. A lot. And I was regretting leaving when I got ambushed by a group of people, and then Poe bailed me out. We started walking together when we stumbled upon your carriage and the rest is history.”

There was so much from that statement that Rey was confused about. First of all, Ben missed her? Okay, yeah. She really couldn’t be mad at him at this point. But then there was the more pressing question. He got ambushed. “You got ambushed?”

“Yeah,”

“By who,”

“It was some group,” Ben said, “said that there leader was named Phasma.”

Rey’s stomach dropped. “What?”


End file.
